Maran's fall may affect telecom reforms

TNN|

May 20, 2007, 12.21 AM IST

0Comments

Internal politics and family feud of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi rocked Delhi when Union IT and communication minister Dayanidhi Maran tendered his resignation from the UPA government. After all, it’s an era of coalition politics where the Prime Minister does not necessarily enjoy the authority to pick and choose his team mates.

For Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Maran’s exit from the Cabinet is a huge loss as the young DMK minister pioneered a series of reforms in the fast changing Indian telecom space. What’s more, he acted like a catalyst to bring in more FDI to India.

The same scenario occurred nearly five years ago when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee reluctantly accepted the resignation of then power minister Suresh Prabhu. The pro-reforms minister had to resign from the Vajpayee government after he had attracted the ire of his party supremo Bal Thackeray.

The saga of Maran’s exit from Dr Singh’s cabinet began with a survey published in “Dinakaran”, the newspaper run by the minister’s brother Kalanidhi Maran. The opinion poll, which infuriated Mr Karunanidhi’s elder son M K Azhagiri, said that Mr Azhagiri was favoured only by two per cent of the population as Mr Karunanidhi’s successor. Later, Mr Azhagiri’s supporters set fire to a newspaper building.

The DMK’s administrative committee urged the party chief to take action against Mr Maran for what’s suspected as an attempt by the Maran family to create confusions among Mr Karunanidhi’s sons. The Committee, which adopted a resolution said Mr Maran’s recent actions had violated party discipline and tarnished the party’s image. Mr Maran was also given a show-cause notice asking him to explain his conduct.

Though Mr Maran’s stepping down as an Union minister threw a question over his political future, he refrained from making any statement against his granduncle Mr Karunanidhi.

Very likely Mr Maran may lie low for sometime before making a bid to patch up with the DMK family. After all, it’s not the Marans who need the political clout in the state, the DMK too needs the Marans who with their media power helped a lot during J Jayalalithaa’s regime.

However, for the time being, Tamil Nadu could be the biggest loser. After all, the state in the last few years received a huge chunk of foreign investment, all thanks to Mr Maran’s pro-active role in Delhi.